Happy Trafalgar Day

[Thedelldays]

On this day in 1805, the Royal Navy defeated the combined french and spannish navies against all odds to help shape the british empire and allowed britain to rule the waves for over 100 years..

 

Admiral Lord Nelson was the man in charge that day and died alongside his men in what was the greatest naval battle of all time....

 

Nelson is still admired and many of his values and his ideas are still used today..

 

IMO, today should be the extra bank holiday people want.....

 

Happy Trafalgar Day

[Pancake]

Admiral Lord Nelson was the man in charge that day and died alongside his men in what was the greatest naval battle of all time....

 

Vice-Admiral...

[Hatch]

I'm related to him (so I'm told)

[bridge too far]

Listening to Radio 5 Live this morning, I heard an interesting interview with the landlord of the Dolphin in Old Portsmouth.

 

Apparently, they've found an old pane of glass with Nelson's name scratched on it. They're waiting for verification that it is his.

 

Co-incidentally, the pub is hosting a Trafalgar dinner tonight, with 'traditional Trafalgar fare' - the landlord just mentioned it in passing

[Scudamore]

I'm related to him (so I'm told)

 

Descendant of his afterbirth?

[Thedelldays]

heard the 21-gun salute earlier echoing from the dockyard here in plymouth

[Window Cleaner]

 

"Apparently, they've found an old pane of glass with Nelson's name scratched on it. They're waiting for verification that it is his."

 

 

The Old Bill will then be going round to his column in Trafalgar Sq to slap an ASBO on it.

[Hatch]

Listening to Radio 5 Live this morning, I heard an interesting interview with the landlord of the Dolphin in Old Portsmouth.

 

Apparently, they've found an old pane of glass with Nelson's name scratched on it. They're waiting for verification that it is his.

 

Co-incidentally, the pub is hosting a Trafalgar dinner tonight, with 'traditional Trafalgar fare' - the landlord just mentioned it in passing

 

 

Why would Nelson scratch his name in a pane of glass?

 

 

Good Job he wasn't called Horation Stella or Horatio Fosters

[bridge too far]

Why would Nelson scratch his name in a pane of glass?

 

 

 

Dunno :smt102

 

The story goes that there was a pane of glass with his name scratched in it and countless other names from that era. When the pub was turned into a brasserie, a lot of old stuff was dumped in a cellar. When the new landlord took over, he found the pane of glass amongst the stuff.

 

Someone then told him about the old story about Nelson's name and, lo and behold, and by divine coincidence on the very day he was running a Trafalgar Day special in his pub, up turns the pane of glass!

 

Spooky, eh?

[Weston Super Saint]

Listening to Radio 5 Live this morning, I heard an interesting interview with the landlord of the Dolphin in Old Portsmouth.

 

Apparently, they've found an old pane of glass with Nelson's name scratched on it. They're waiting for verification that it is his.

 

Co-incidentally, the pub is hosting a Trafalgar dinner tonight, with 'traditional Trafalgar fare' - the landlord just mentioned it in passing

 

Do you think that it might be spelt wrong then?

 

Perhaps it's Tony Blair's name and not Nelson after all

[bridge too far]

Do you think that it might be spelt wrong then?

 

Perhaps it's Tony Blair's name and not Nelson after all

 

Ar*e

 

Oh - perhaps you were really asking the question :shock:

 

They're saying that historians will have to compare the signature with Nelson's known signature.

 

But of course, this won't be done until after Trafalgar Day by which time loads of Poopey mongs will have forked out for a meal in his pub LOL

[Guest Dark Sotonic Mills]

I took the kids to Victory the other day to show them the metal plaque where Nelson fell.

 

I can understand why, I nearly tripped over it myself.

[Hatch]

I took the kids to Victory the other day to show them the metal plaque where Nelson fell.

 

I can understand why, I nearly tripped over it myself.

 

 

 

I can remember my Grandad telling me that in c1974.

[Weston Super Saint]

 

I can remember my Grandad telling me that in c1974.

 

Is DSM your grandad?

[Roman]

The only good thing ever to come out of Great Yarmouth.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

As a historian I can certainly see the importance and relevance this day has to British history, however I don't feel it deserves to be a bank holiday. Why celebrate the defeat of what are now allies? (Before you lot say "what about November 11th", well thats a REMEMBERANCE day, not a celebration)

 

They should give us two bank holidays for Mayday, a true workers holiday.

[St Landrew]

I took the kids to Victory the other day to show them the metal plaque where Nelson fell.

 

I can understand why, I nearly tripped over it myself.

 

That's an old one, but gets a chuckle every time.

 

Some interesting trivia on Nelson. All his injuires [apart from the fatal shot] were sustained during land skimishes, led by Nelson. He was no land military commander.

Nelson was a poor sailor, spending about half of his life on board with seasickness.

The famous signal - England Expects... started out as England Confides but the signalman suggested Expects, as Confides would be slower because it would require spelling out.

 

There's loads more too.

[miserableoldgit]

That's an old one, but gets a chuckle every time.

 

Some interesting trivia on Nelson. All his injuires [apart from the fatal shot] were sustained during land skimishes, led by Nelson. He was no land military commander.

Nelson was a poor sailor, spending about half of his life on board with seasickness.

The famous signal - England Expects... started out as England Confides but the signalman suggested Expects, as Confides would be slower because it would require spelling out.

 

There's loads more too.

Nelson has always been a particular hero of mine. He was a far from perfect human being. He was a particularly vain person who treated his devoted wife Fanny very badly for example. But he was single-minded when it came to doing his duty and was very good at inspiring loyalty from even the humblest seaman and the captains serving with him (his "Band of Brothers"). At the time of Trafalgar he was in very poor health. He was virtually blind, had very bad dental problems etc but he still went out and did his duty. This puts not going into work because of a cold into perspective!! It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of what he achieved at Trafalgar. It stopped Napoleon invading England, virtually killed off Spain as a world power, and made Britain rulers of the sea for more than 100 years. For all of these reasons and more he should be remembered and revered as a true English hero more than he is. The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich has a Nelson Room containing many relics, including the tunic and stockings that he was wearing when he was fatally wounded. Well worth a visit.

[St Landrew]

...The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich has a Nelson Room containing many relics, including the tunic and stockings that he was wearing when he was fatally wounded. Well worth a visit.

 

I've been to the National Maritime Museum and it's an excellent venue. In the Nelson Room I stood in front of the glass cabinet where Nelson's tunic and stockings were on a headless dummy. I could clearly see the entry area of the shot which killed him. Nelson was obviously quite a small and slight figure, yet just standing in front of the tunic was quite a humbling experience. There was a real sense of the very material reaching back over the years to 1805.

[miserableoldgit]

I've been to the National Maritime Museum and it's an excellent venue. In the Nelson Room I stood in front of the glass cabinet where Nelson's tunic and stockings were on a headless dummy. I could clearly see the entry area of the shot which killed him. Nelson was obviously quite a small and slight figure, yet just standing in front of the tunic was quite a humbling experience. There was a real sense of the very material reaching back over the years to 1805.

I had the very same experience. I stood for quite a while in front of that display case, lost in my thoughts and imagining what it must have been like on that momentous day in 1805. As you say, a humbling experience.

[Thedelldays]

Nelson was indeed a poor sailor so to speak..however, he was the greatest military leader of his generation and maybe of all time in british history....

 

his command of loyalty from men serving in utterly poor conditions iwas simply brilliant....he was out spoken, had a mistress and was in shocking health...with all that, he still delivered the good against all odds...

 

he commanded the british fleet with his right hand man Collingwood and did the unimaginable...defeated the combined navies of france and spain...something we will never begin to realise how important that was...

 

the only naval battle to come close to that scale was the battle of Jutland where admiral jellicoe (from southampton) led the royal navy in WW1.....nearly 200k tons of shipping were lost during that battle!!!!!